Family behind The Villages creating hunting camp in Marion County

Mark Morse, president and chief operating officer of The Villages, and his daughter, Kelsea Manly, recently filed paperwork signaling the creation of a 1,900-acre hunting preserve east of Ocala.

By Bill ThompsonStaff writer

The family who introduced one of the biggest all-in-one residential venues to Central Florida has embarked on bringing their passion for the great outdoors closer to home.

Mark Morse, president and chief operating officer of The Villages, and his daughter, Kelsea Manly, recently filed paperwork signaling the creation of a 1,900-acre hunting preserve east of Ocala.

The father-daughter team, under the corporate banner of a firm called Cow Hammock LLC, filed building permits and other documents that indicate the launch of an exclusive hunting camp.

County records filed within the past 10 days indicate the property will host a 2,062-square-foot bunkhouse valued at $90,000 and a 508-square-foot freezer facility estimated at $60,000.

Also on site, according to county records, will be a “skinning shack” and a main house.

Permits for those two buildings apparently had not been filed yet.

The two building permits have temporarily stalled because the county is seeking additional information from the applicants, a county spokeswoman said.

The buildings will be situated on part of the 2,391 acres that Cow Hammock acquired last June.

Cow Hammock bought the land from Rayonier Forest Resources, the Jacksonville-based lumber, paper and real estate giant, for just more than $7 million.

Illustrative of what a difference a decade makes, Rayonier purchased the property in October 1999 for $20.7 million, records indicate.

The property fronts County Road 314 just east of the Ocklawaha River, near Southeast First Street Road. It also sits across the river from hundreds of acres owned by James Rainey, a Morse family friend and a Wildwood contractor who has done considerable work in The Villages.

Neither Morse, the son of Gary Morse, the developer of The Villages, nor Manly could be reached for comment. Manly is part owner of a company called Villages Communications Inc..

The property is zoned for agriculture use, and does not require any additional permission from the county, other than the building permits, said Sam Martsolf, county director of planning and zoning.

Joy Hill, spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said the facility would require a state permit to operate as a hunting preserve, if that is the intention.

No such permit has been filed yet, she added.

Morse and his daughter are well known hunting enthusiasts, sometimes with consequences for more than just the game.

Morse and Manly were two of eight people rung up in a high-profile poaching case in Montana, where the Morse family and Rainey own ranches.

In 2010, Montana prosecutors charged eight people, including Morse and Manly, with felony and misdemeanor counts of illegal hunting.

Eleven months ago, according to the Billings Gazette, Morse pleaded guilty in Yellowstone County to a misdemeanor charge of hunting elk without a license in 2007.

The same day, the newspaper reported, Morse went to neighboring Big Horn County and pleaded guilty for illegal hunting violations that stemmed from 2007 and 2008.

In all, he paid $4,500 in fines and restitution.

Morse had faced more than 10 years in prison and more than $100,000 in fines, the Daily Commercial in Leesburg reported in 2011.

Manly, who was described by the newspaper as a former Florida game warden, pleaded guilty in 2011 to killing a turkey without a license and hunting elk without a license.

A Montana judge ordered her to pay $2,095 in fines.

One of Morse’s Montana ranches straddled the two counties, the Gazette reported, while he co-owned another with Rainey in Big Horn County.